An Affair to Remember: The Old Fashioned Granddad
This is now my second attempt at writing this piece. My first attempt was poetic, perfectly worded and was full of nostalgia, sentiment, and story. It was the piece I wanted to write and it was just as I wanted to write it. My original piece has sadly been lost to the digital ether, a product of user error and a string of words you never hope to see on your screen before you’ve hit “save” .. your browser crashed unexpectedly. Needless to say … I will be hitting that “save” button after every paragraph.
(Done).
So how to go back after this piece while avoiding the pitfalls of trying to re-capture the recipe after having built the dish slowly, being mindful of the heat and your timing, using all your gathering ingredients and layering them in one-by-one, and then concluding with that last bit of salt that brings the whole effort to a crescendo … taking that last taster’s spoonful and declaring it a masterpiece, only to walk away and come back a few hours later and realize you left the burner on and ruined the whole thing? Let’s find out …
An Old Fashioned Granddad
My perfect old fashioned has taken me twenty years to arrive at and that is not because I have spent that time trying to concoct the most minute of details in a secret cocktail laboratory. Honestly, if you had asked me to describe my perfect old fashioned in 2006 I would have probably answered “oats”. It wasn’t a thing that was even on my radar. Yes, it’s a classic cocktail and yes, it has existed in one form or another for over two hundred years. And yes, it is a simple template … booze, water, sugar, and bitters. It has evolved, gone in and out of favor, and now sits as a ubiquitous offering on nearly every cocktail menu at nearly every cocktail bar around the world. Being a bourbon cocktail, even at the tail-end of a whiskey boom, also makes it a good time to be an old fashioned.
(I must admit that at this point in the writing I found myself falling back into the narrative of my now lost first attempt.) The biggest piece of my now lost story was simply about a mentor of mine, a friend, a former boss, a dynamo of a man who was two years younger than I when we met in the fall of 2006 and if not for him, I wouldn’t be writing this article in the first place … not because he turned me on to cocktails, whiskey, or old fashioneds themselves but simply because he, more than any one person in my life, expanded my palate, my curiosity, and my love for sharing a great meal, a great drink, a rich moment with others. Sadly, he won’t ever read these words because tragedy is always present in our human experience. My salute is much briefer here but it is a heartfelt salute all the same … cheers Wilson! There’s a part of you in the essence of every glass I raise.
So with Will in mind and with his bar stool clearly reserved … I hold to three simple rules: 1/ don’t take any shortcut, 2/ find quality in your ingredients, and 3/ always make two because a good drink, like a good meal, is to be shared. On to a quick recap of my recipe:
The star of the show is Jim Beam’s Old Grand-Dad 114, a high proof, high rye bourbon that is affordable, punches above its price point, and stands up in cocktail. Easily the one bottle, in a vast sea of bottles that I own, that has been purchased the most. And as this is my house bourbon in my house cocktail … my old fashioned has a house name … perfectly dubbed The Old Fashioned Granddad.
The allspice bitters pictured here were made in-bar specifically for this cocktail. I asked a bartender friend of mine, who happened to make her own bitters, if she would create something for me using OGD 114 as the bitter’s base spirit. Her choice of allspice is so complementary to each subsequent ingredient … we’re building flavors.
In addition to the allspice bitters I also include two dashes of orange bitters and with Regan’s I am simply going with the industry standard that does its job. I always use a rich demerara syrup in my old fashioned (2 parts sugar:1 part water). Turbinado is not a substitute. For citrus I rely on a two-hander: orange peel which is expressed over the mixing glass and dropped in with the rest of our ingredients that are to be stirred with ice, and a lemon peel which finishes the poured cocktail by expressing its oils over the final product, brushing its essence along the entirety of the glass’s rim, and then being dropped as the last one to join the pool party. Sometimes I will include the orange peel in the cocktail, sometimes I omit it. It is drinker’s choice.
My Perfect Old Fashioned .. bourbon, bitters, sugar, water, and a punch of citrus. EAT a cherry if you must. Photograph: C.S. Harvey
Grab a mixing glass and spoon, jiggers and peeler, chill your cocktail glass in the freezer, gather your ingredients, and have some ice handy. (I use smaller cubed ice for stirring and a King Cube for your finished cocktail). Lastly, my occasional gripe about a lot of old fashioneds that I get served at far too many bars is that they are often served too warm. Take your time. I stir everything for 20-25 seconds minimum. A little extra dilution yes but we’re already working with a higher proof bourbon here so it can take it and there’s no substitute for a properly chilled drink. And lastly … there is NO cherry. Save it for your Manhattan.
OLD FASHIONED GRANDDAD
2 dashes of Regan’s orange bitters / 3-4 drops of allspice bitters / orange peel expressed / .25 oz rich demerara syrup / 2 oz Old Grand-dad 114 / lemon peel expressed and garnished
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